A Walk in the Woods

*** out of ****

While I make no effort to avoid movie trailers, I have a rule about movies that look interesting enough to  see. That rule is to know as little about a film as possible before going in to see it. That way I have no preconceived notions and can experience the movie the way the filmmakers intended. It also allows me to enjoy it more. This past summer the importance was reinforced when, after avoiding looking at anything about the new Terminator movie, I sat in the theatre waiting for it to start. IN THE PRESHOW MATERIALS they played a little feature on the movie I was about to see that blew the whole “this is a reboot, Arnie is waiting in 1984 when the first terminator arrives.” I was beside myself. It ruined the entire movie for me.

So I continue to try to avoid those preconceived ideas. When I found out that Robert Redford and Nick Nolte were doing a movie where they as 70+ year olds hike the Appalachian Trail, I made sure to watch nothing else about it. And as is so often the case, I'm glad I did.

Redford plays Bill Bryson, a real-life author of travelogues, who is bored. Middle age has left him behind and he feels that his comfortable life offers him no challenge or excitement. So he decides, against the objections of his wife (Emma Thompson), to hike the Appalachian Trail, a 2000 mile foot-path that extends from Georgia to Maine. After several well-intentioned attempts to talk him out of it, his wife finally agrees but decrees that she will only allow it to happen if he travels with a companion.

Bryson's companion search is brief and fruitless, with most of his friends deciding he has a screw loose. Then he receives an unsolicited call from a long-lost acquaintance from decades ago, Stephen Katz (Nick Nolte). Katz has heard about the trip from a mutual friend and he asks to go along. Despite reservations due to the contentiousness of their friendship back in the day, Bryson agrees. Really, he has no other choice, as he has nobody else that wants to go. Katz's lifelong drinking problem and lack of personal fitness add to the levity when they meet up again.

Now the conventional critics didn't especially like this film, suggesting that this plotline coupled with the stellar pairing of Redford and Nolte should have produced a really entertaining movie. I personally think they sold it short, as this IS a really entertaining movie. Nolte, as is so often the case, is absolutely stellar in his role and his traditional growling bear persona, which is now 50% grumpy-old-man, is hilarious. Redford is clearly the straight man in this pairing – Nolte had me laughing out loud a dozen times.

Despite a bit of an anticlimactic conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. Nolte really lights up the screen, and Redford's role, greatly enhanced by his weather-beaten, leathery appearance play really well against it. It's surely not going to be nominated for any Academy Awards (except perhaps for some technical ones) but it's a fun film with some great laughs. Particularly for those of us that are already finding ourselves a step slower than we used to be.